Violencia de amor

(1959) Violent Summer/ Estate violenta (In Italian with English subtitles) WAR DRAMA

Co-written and directed by Valerio Zurlini that refers to "Violent Summer" as a metaphor of WWII that serves as a backdrop here. The opening has Carlo Caremoli (Jean Louis Trintignant) returning back to the small town of Riccione where he is visiting his peers of Daniele (Giampiero Littera), Giulio (Bruno Carotenuto), Serena (Cathia Caro), Giorgio (Raf Mattioli) and the one who has a crush on Carlo is Rossana (Jacqueline Sassard) as they all do things together such as boating and hanging out at the beach. One day as soon as a war plane flies overhead, a young girl, we find out her name is Colomba becomes scared running up to Carlo's arms. Her mother, Roberta Parmesan (Eleonora Rossi Drago) then tries to reassure her daughter, and Carlo then offers to carry them to their home. And it was at this point he becomes infatuated with her as soon as he learns she is a widow. Roberta is slightly older than him, but he still insists on seeing her much often. And then her sister-in law, Maddalena (Federica Ranchi) and brother in law, Martino show up and are offered to stay with her and her mother. And it was the result that it was under war territory, and because Maddalena is about the same age as Carlo's peers, she decided to introduce her to them.

Valerio Zurlini was first known for his melodramas ("la ragazza con la valigla" and "cronaca familiare" but his towering achievement was his final effort "il deserto dei Tartari" a brilliant adaptation of Dino Buzatti's masterpiece (hence not a melodrama).

"Estate Violenta" is a moderately successful film:the umpteenth story of a young and attractive widow and a younger (not so younger by the way,Trintignant was actually about five years younger than Rossi-Drago)lad ,during the Fascist years .The boy has a lot of fun with his mates :thanks to his father who provides him protection he has avoided the draft.He spends his time ,with a spoiled youth sunbathing and partying but history is about to catch him up.Rossi-Drago portrays a woman who stifles in her bourgeois atmosphere.

Excellent performances by the two leads.Gorgeous brunette Jacqueline Sassard is also featured as Trintignant's girlfriend (she would team up again with Trintignant in Chabrol's "les biches"(1967); nothing was heard from her since).Best scene:bombing of the railway station,Zurlini works wonders when he describes people's panic.

Why not make a drama that really brings home how it does affect ordinary people ... or a whole town/village. In this case it is the second world war ... I have to admit, I do not know how I would have reacted if I were one of those characters in the movie. Although I am quite certain they are not just characters but either based on real people or close to what people felt and did back then.

If that sounds like a slow paced drama/movie you are up to watch ... well go ahead and do it. Everyone else might have issues with it and how it tells its story. It's a what if ... and what would you do ... and while it may have aged, it still is poignant and apt ... and full of emotion.

After being quite impressed by the near-masterpiece comedy Zurlini made in 1954 "The Girls of San Frediano," I was very much disappointed by "Violent Summer," an overly melodramatic soap-opera made 5 years later. Too bad Zurlini couldn't restrain himself from the melodramatic overstatements that ruin the film because the cinematography couldn't be better and the young Trintignant's performance is pretty amazing.

Jean-Louis Trintignat plays the draft-dodging son of a powerful Nazi in 1943 Italy, in a prelude to Bertolucci's "The Conformist," who falls in love with an older war widow, in an absolutely brilliant performance by Eleonora Rossi Drago, (what else has she ever been in?) featuring a brilliantly choreographed sequence to the song "Temptation," reminding me of Fassbinder's "The Bitter Tears of Petra Van Kant," this is one of the better scenes one is ever likely to see in all of cinema where the lovers dance and fall in love around a nude male statue oblivious to the war raging outside, similar to Oshima's "In the Realm of the Senses," there is an extraordinary pacing to the film, an intense love affair, reminiscent of Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in Hitchcock's "Notorious," this is a beautifully written, old-fashioned melodrama, the likes of which we just don't see any more.